Laurel Osterkamp

Book Review: The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Laurel Osterkamp · January 14, 2022

I became aware of The Ballerinas, by Rachel Kapelke Dale, in an airport bookstore, when I had six hours to kill due to a delayed flight. I was immediately intrigued by its cover, with three female forms donned in pretty pink tutus. That’s because I have spent a lot of time in my life, from when I was around five years old and all the way through college, taking ballet lessons. I was never very good, but I stuck with it and eventually earned the opportunity to …

Broadcast News in the #MeToo Era

Laurel Osterkamp · January 7, 2022

Broadcast News has always been one of my top ten favorite films, ever since I saw it in the theater as a teenager. When I was young, I enjoyed it for its witty banter and the depiction of its feminist yet feminine protagonist, Holly Hunter’s Jane. At one point, Jane’s boss says to her sarcastically, “It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you’re the smartest person in the room.” Holly Hunter/Jane responds, deadpan, “No. It’s awful.” Watch the scene The movie is …

Favorite Daughters: Path to Publication

Laurel Osterkamp · December 20, 2021

It’s been several years since I’ve published a novel, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing. I started Favorite Daughters roughly six years ago, and I went through multiple revisions and rewrites, and a long process in finding a publisher. But I am happy to announce that Black Rose Writing will release Favorite Daughters in August of 2022. Why the wait? Traditional publishers have a long, complicated process and they want to make sure they get everything right. Today, I am celebrating …

Swim Challenge

Laurel Osterkamp · December 20, 2021

This fall, as part of my MFA program in Creative Writing at Lindenwood University I took a course in revisionist fiction. When I told them about the course, my friends and family would ask, “What’s revisionist fiction?” Revisionist fiction is when you take an original work, and riff on it. For instance, there’s the original Pride and Prejudice, and then there’s a plethora of revisionist works, like Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies, or Ibi Zoboi’s excellent YA novel, Pride, or Curtis Sittenfeld’s …

Feminist Fiction Writers: Dorothy Parker

Laurel Osterkamp · October 20, 2021

If “A Phone Call” was the only story by Dorothy Parker that you ever read, you might dismiss her as frivolous. It would be easy to overlook the commentary on gender dynamics, or the skilled, biting humor that is grounded in self-deprecation, and which layers a profound sadness underneath. “A Telephone Call” is a tragi-comic rambling of a woman so desperate for a man to call her that she’s pushed to the edge. But if you consider that it was written in 1930, when …